BARRERA MORE BABY THAN ASSASSIN.

Byline: ROBERT MORALES BOXING

Marco Antonio Barrera has been known as the ``Baby Faced Assassin'' throughout his career, which has included world championships in three weight classes and a record of 63-4 with 42 knockouts.

He no longer deserves that moniker after not taking any chances in his highly anticipated rematch against Rocky Juarez last Saturday in Las Vegas.

Instead of the hunter, Barrera looked more like the roadrunner escaping the clutches of that dastardly coyote, as he won a unanimous decision and retained his World Boxing Council super featherweight belt.

There was nothing classic about it. Barrera stunk up the joint. Just ask the 10,000-plus fans at MGM Grand who had to endure 12 rounds of sticking and moving and holding, most of it thanks to Barrera, the supposed Mexican legend in the making.

Barrera, who made his bones fighting out of the Forum in the 1990s, never heard so many boos.

``It's understandable,'' Barrera, of Mexico City, said in the postfight news conference. ``People come to pay their money. They want to see entertainment.''

This is a fighter who has been in plenty of slugfests, so it's doubtful he suddenly lost his heart. Rather, Barrera more than likely took this approach because he knew that if he did take chances, Juarez could ruin any chance Barrera had of getting a rematch with Manny Pacquiao.

It was a business decision, if you will. Pacquiao stopped Barrera in the 11th round in November 2003 in San Antonio, Texas.

``That is the fight that Marco really wants,'' Richard Schaefer, CEO of Golden Boy Promotions, told the Daily News the night before the fight. Barrera is promoted by Golden Boy.

Barrera badly wants this fight for two reasons -- money and revenge. Barrera made a guaranteed $1 million for Saturday's rematch against Juarez. In addition, he will receive some upside money from the pay-per-view revenue, but it's doubtful that will take him near the $2 million mark.

A rematch against Pacquiao likely would bring Barrera anywhere from $2.5 million to $3.5 million guaranteed, plus upside money. We're talking at least $4 million, perhaps a conservative estimate.

For a fighter who has said he will not fight past 2007, that is an important fight heading into retirement. Barrera, 32, is popular, but he is not Oscar De La Hoya, who rarely makes less than $10 million for a fight and has made as much as $27 million.

Four-million dollar paydays are hard to come by, especially for a fighter in a lower weight division.

The first thing Barrera said Saturday when he came into the postfight news conference was, ``I'm sorry about this fight.''

Well, that doesn't help the hundreds of thousands of pay-per-view buyers who sat around their television sets with their pals. Instead of a tremendous rematch with a fighter who nearly beat Barrera last May at Staples Center, they got to watch Barrera take their money and run.

``I guess we didn't do enough road work,'' said Carl Moretti, of Main Events Inc., which promotes Juarez. Translation: The Juarez camp didn't expect a track meet.

As the postfight news conference began, De La Hoya, president of Golden Boy, took questions from the media as everyone awaited the arrival of Barrera and Juarez.

When De La Hoya began to speak about his man Barrera's victory, a female attached to the Juarez camp shouted out that Barrera ran. After a few minutes, a woman sitting next to Barrera's wife, Sandra, got up and started to approach the heckling woman.

Yet another woman got in the middle, and a confrontation was avoided. But it just showed the emotion that comes into a situation like this.

``He told me he really wanted to give him a boxing lesson,'' De La Hoya said of Barrera's strategy. ``Rocky Juarez is a tough fighter. Anyone he fights in the future, he is going to knock out. He is a tough, tough cookie.''

Pacquiao will take on Erik Morales a third time Nov. 18 in Las Vegas. Pacquiao is not a lock to win that rubber match, but he will be favored.

If he wins and the deal can get done, expect he and Barrera to get it on sometime next spring.

Promoters wait on Toney-Peter rematch

Promoter Dan Goossen on Friday said he is awaiting word from the World Boxing Council on whether it will order a rematch between his fighter, James ``Lights Out'' Toney, and Samuel Peter.

The two duked it out in a 12-round heavyweight fight Sept. 2 at Staples Center, with Peter coming away with a controversial split decision. Judge Gale Van Hoy scored Toney the winner 115-112, but Dick Flaherty and Alejandro Rochin gave it to Peter 116-111.

The Daily News conducted a poll of about a dozen veteran boxing writers, and none had Peter winning. Goossen Tutor Promotions, which co-promotes Toney, did a poll that showed 25 of 27 reporters favoring Toney.

``They are considering it,'' Goossen said of the WBC. ``We sent them a letter and a copy of the tape and asked them to have a WBC panel review the tape.

``If James was a 24-year-old, I would still go about trying to get him an immediate rematch. But (him) being at 38 makes it that much more imperative that they look at the injustice. And I believe it was an injustice to James, not intentonally, but certainly one that didn't seem fair with the final decision.''

Dino Duva, who promotes Peter, is not happy about Goossen's action. He said he understands that Goossen is just doing his job as a promoter, but the bottom line is the judges scored Peter the winner.

Peter earned a shot at WBC champion Oleg Maskaev with the victory.

And Duva is adamant about Peter getting that fight before anything else takes place.

``I honestly do not believe a rematch is justified,'' Duva said Friday from his office in Totowa, N.J. ``I think it would be wrong, very wrong, for the WBC to order a rematch.

``I think it would be basically saying, `We don't care what the judges say anymore.' And I would have a real hard time accepting it if the WBC does take that course.''

Duva reiterated that he would be happy to explore a rematch between Peter and Toney once, and if, Peter defeats Maskaev and wins the title.

``Absolutely,'' Duva said. ``But it is not fair to make Sam fight him now when he earned the right to fight for the title first.''

Goossen does not care to wait to see if Duva would honor that.

``This is what we need in our industry, to get rid of controversy and do the right thing,'' Goossen said. ``Dino has been fighting it, Sam has been fighting it. So the best thing to do is go to the WBC and let them come up with a decision.''

CAPTION(S):

3 photos, box

Photo:

(1) Marco Antonio Barrera, left, ducks a punch from Rocky Juarez during their super featherweight title fight last week in Las Vegas.

Ethan Miller/Getty Images

(2) PETER

(3) TONEY

Box:

Etc.